Shark fins: Can we preserve human culture and dwindling species?

A state bill introduced by Jared Huffman and Paul Fong to ban sale and distribution of shark fins has ignited a complicated debate about cultural practices that are no longer environmentally sustainable.

Shark finning is a practice in which sharks are caught, definned, and tossed back into the water to die. The cruel practice been identified as a likely cause of the global collapse of shark populations. It’s already illegal to import fins, without the shark attached, into the United States.

But the California legislators say the federal bill clearly isn’t doing enough since shark fin soup continues to be served as an expensive delicacy in Chinese restaurants around the state.

Shark finning dates to times before our animal cruelty sensibility was as keen, before fishing technology was as advanced, and before the human population was as large. But those times have changed: Should the traditional practice be forced to change with them?

As an environmentalist who is not of Chinese descent, I tend to think that cultural practices have to be abandoned when they are very clearly no longer in harmony with the environment or prevailing ethics. (If the planet dies, all of its human cultures will, too.) And, if shark fin soup runs $75 a bowl, this isn’t a tradition that any but the most privileged are enjoying.

In some cases, leaders within the traditional Chinese medicine community have said they no longer need increasingly rare animals like those aforementioned. But when cultural outsiders lead the charge against a traditional practice, resentment brews. So perhaps what we need is a larger contingent of Chinese and Chinese Americans to speak out against shark finning.

What do you think?

Update: I came across this piece asking similar questions by Bernice Yeung at Hyphen Magazine. She thinks there may be less overreaching ways to cut down on shark slaughter, since, after all, the meat is still legal.